Oh school reading how you get in the way of stuff I WANT to read. For better or worse this semester, I am reading a lot of YA for school. I originally read Ship Breaker in 2010. Back then and now, I feel like Bacigalupi must have suffered some childhood trauma to be able to write such a sick and twisted dystopian future wracked by an environmental disaster. This book is not for the faint of heart.

In America’s Gulf Coast region, where grounded oil tankers are being broken down for parts, Nailer, a teenage boy, works the light crew, scavenging for copper wiring just to make quota–and hopefully live to see another day. His life takes a turn when he comes across a wrecked ship whose only survivor is a girl who is the heir to one of the biggest corporation in the world. Nailor has to decide what to do about this girl – to help her or take advantage of her strained circumstances…

Bacigalupi effortless builds this dystopian future. Very quickly I felt like I knew exactly how this incredibly different future America worked and what it looked like, and it felt horrifyingly plausible. Girls are everywhere in this book. Doing everything. Being a girl gets you no favors in this world. I love the equal opportunity crap. There are other books in this series and maybe once school is done I will finally get to book 2.